Garmin Connect reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
The companion app for Garmin's premium watches and sports sensors, where unmatched depth of training and health analytics constantly fights with flaky sync, a cluttered interface, and the sense that Garmin is a hardware company that just doesn't know how to do software.
What users love
The sheer depth of training and health analytics is the main reason people love it
For those whose setup just works, the volume of data is the draw: sleep, stress, HRV, body battery, recovery, training load, per-activity stats. Many say Garmin gives more information than they could ever ask for, and it motivates them more than Fitbit or Apple ever did.
It give super rich information about anything and everything you do!
best watch ever. gives you more information then you could ever ask for
I have so much more data available at my fingertips with Garmin Connect.
When it works, a reliable companion for years — the best for serious athletes
Beneath all the complaints sits a solid core of happy users who've run Garmin for 7 to 20 years, value the backward compatibility with old watches, the LiveTrack feature for solo runs, and the fact that the app keeps getting friendlier year over year and closing the gap on rivals.
Brilliant app, love Garmin kit and have used for nearly 20 years now. This app works almost seamlessly with watches and scales that we have
Been using it for 7 years now. just gets better with time
works even on my fenix 3 from 10 years back as well as the newest versions, great to see the compatibility
Escaping a sinking Fitbit: Garmin became the refuge for users Google abandoned
A noticeable wave of newcomers arrived after Google 'ruined' Fitbit, and they're delighted: more data, MyFitnessPal sync that works out of the box, no AI junk or paywalls (in their experience), and top-notch food logging. To them, Garmin is what Fitbit should have become.
former Fitbit user for 5 years, moved over to Garmin after google bought and ruined Fitbit. there's no AI junk, no data behind a paywall, it just works
coming from Fitbit to Garmin, this is what Fitbit should have been by now if Google didn't take them over and ruin it.
So glad I could escape to this after Google destroyed Fitbit with the shocking Google Health App.
What users hate
The watch keeps disconnecting and demands re-pairing several times a day
The single most common pain: after an update the app stops holding the link to the watch, sync breaks, and people have to re-pair from scratch — sometimes several times a day, across different models and phones. It turns the watch into a useless brick.
It disconnects from your watch every time it is opened. The app is now so bad that the watch is becoming unusable because you cannot visualise your data without having to pair to your phone every single time.
my Garmin instinct 2 gets disconnected from the phone and I have to repair it to my device almost every day
now having to "re pair " or re connect the app to watch several times a day!!! same thing happened last update, get your code straight Garmin...
The Connect+ subscription and paywalling features that came with the watch they bought
Loyal long-term fans are furious about the new subscription: they paid $1500 for a watch and now Garmin charges a recurring fee and locks basic features, AI, challenges and route sending behind a paywall. It reads as greed and a betrayal of the people who built the brand.
The new subscription model is the first step towards basic features behind a paywall. Garmin betrayed their long-term users. As if $1500 for a watch isn't enough.
they've raised their prices so much on their devices and now charging a subscription fee and I've spent over five grand in devices
to have a subscription fee to the product I purchased....... this was the quickest way to lose a huge fan.
A cluttered, unintuitive interface — software from a hardware-first company
A recurring theme: data is scattered illogically, there are too many tabs, the graphs are hard to read, and settings are buried so deep you have to Google or hit Reddit. People say outright that Garmin is great at hardware and that this is the worst app of any wearable they've owned.
This app really drives home the lingering feeling that Garmin is still primarily a hardware company that doesn't know how to do software.
the horizontal graphs difficult to read and the amount of unnecessary tabs overwhelming
All the settings are all over the place. You have to hit reddit everytime you want to change anything on your watch or account
Every update breaks something: the calendar, sync, notifications
Updates here are a source of risk, not improvement. After updates, calendar events break with wrong time zones, breathwork stops working, notifications vanish, and sleep and stress stop syncing. The refrain is 'worked for years, and now it doesn't'.
New version has broken the calendar widget on my Garmin forerunner. The time zone seems to be locked and events are removed before they have even occurred.
The latest update messed up the calendar. I guess that the dev config timezones incorrectly and double-add the timezones.
Stopped displaying full breathwork details, only shows summary on home screen
The app barely loads: 30 seconds, minutes, sometimes won't open at all
Performance is its own pain: the app is slow, laggy, gets stuck on the 'connect' splash screen, takes 30 to 170 seconds to open instead of two, and for some it simply stops opening at all even after a reinstall.
LOADING.... LOADING.... WAITING 10-60MIN FOR APP TO LOAD. CONTACTED YOU TWICE IN 6 MONTHS AND STILL NOT FIXED.
the app has been extremely slow, consistently taking more than 30 seconds to open (today I counted 55 and 170 seconds for two separate starts)
App gets stuck on "connect" opening page and will not open.
Useless without internet — an outdoors company with no offline access to your data
A paradox for a brand built on hiking and the backcountry: with no connection, the app won't work. You can't view your watch data over Bluetooth in the mountains, the woods, on a boat or at sea — exactly where Garmin is supposed to shine.
without service or data connection, this app will not operate. Garmin mostly being a very outdoorsy company, youd think that this app would let me view my watch data
too bad more time was spent on UIX and not UX in the environment where garmin excels, off grid.
as a sailor that looses connectivity for extended periods it's frustrating to not be able to use the app to check stats that are local and should not require a connection.
The 'share your data' prompt keeps popping up over and over
A distinct irritant: every time you open the main page, a 'help us keep improving' / share-your-data prompt appears, and tapping 'no' is never remembered. Combined with half-screen ads for a free trial, it drives people to rage.
The app asks whether I want to share my data or not, over and over until I say yes.
the "Help us keep improving" share your data prompt, keep appearing every time you enter the main page, if you press no on it?
how many times are you going to ask me if I want to Help you to improve? If I say one time "no", should suffice, right?
A thin exercise database and an unforgiving search for strength training
For strength training the exercise database is thin: basic gym machines are missing, you can't add a custom exercise, and search won't find 'pull-ups' or 'situp' unless you type the exact name. People hold up Hevy as how it should be done.
Exercise list for strength training seems very limited. Missing a lot of exercises and makes it difficult to accurately track. Search is also very unforgiving.
if you type in "situp or sit up" you won't be able to find this exercise, same with "Pull-ups" you have to type in exactly the name
The app desperately needs custom exercise name input for strength training. The built-in exercise database is missing basic gym machines.
Drains phone battery with background sync you can't turn off
The app sits in the background and drains the phone battery — especially on Samsung, where the OS diagnostics explicitly flag its high CPU usage. There's no way to stop it running in the background, and some have to restart or uninstall just to get their data.
Garmin Connect repeatedly causes severe battery drain on my Samsung Galaxy S24+. Samsung's battery diagnostics explicitly flagged Garmin Connect for high CPU usage.
battery Killer, Causes problems with Samsung phone.. requiring Restart or Uninstall to get all the data the Watch collects
Why can't I stop it from running on the background? I only use every once in a while, don't need it running constantly doing who knows what.
Garmin Pay and integrations that exist on paper but don't work in practice
Garmin Pay works for no bank across dozens of cards worldwide for many users, units won't switch to miles/kg, there's no in-app language separate from the system one, and MyFitnessPal sync suddenly sits behind a paywall. A lot of what's advertised simply doesn't work.
WHY does this DUCK have "garmin pay" when NOWHERE IN THE WORLD it does work
just let me use different measurements units. on my watch I can use miles and kg. on the app I can't. why???????
Cannot sync to myfitnesspal. Everything set up correctly and now have to pay to unlock other challenges. shame on Garmin Connect.